Mitch McConnell's disturbing chuckle 
Opinion by Jill Filipovic

Mitch McConnell appears to think this is some kind of joke.

© WKYT

At a televised debate Monday night, Amy McGrath, who is running against McConnell for a US Senate seat from Kentucky, noted again and again that a pandemic has plunged the country into an unrelenting crisis and McConnell's Republican-controlled Senate is refusing to do anything to alleviate the pain. In response, McConnell laughed. And laughed. And laughed.


And then he blamed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

More than 210,000 Americans are dead. At least 26 million people are collecting unemployment benefits, and many more than that are unemployed, underemployed, or in danger of losing their jobs.

More than 600,000 women left the workforce in September alone (compared with 78,000 men), according to government data.

And while the Republican controlled Senate, where McConnell is the majority leader, can get it together to hold lightning-speed confirmation hearings aimed at thrusting Amy Coney Barrett onto the Supreme Court before the November 3 election, they have shown no such ability to advance a new relief package for those hundreds of millions of Americans struggling — many with jobs and lives in ruins — as a deadly disease continues its rampage through their communities.

A relief bill is sitting on Mitch "I know how to make deals" McConnell's desk, and he's pushed it aside.

And there's really no charitable reading possible for McConnell's chuckling at a debate over the question of Covid relief.

There's nothing funny about the utter, unconscionable failures over which this Senate Majority Leader has presided. There's nothing funny about more Americans dead from Covid-19 than died in World War I, Vietnam, the Korean War, and the Iraq war combined. Or that while the US contributes just 4% percent of the world's population, it makes up 20% of the world's Covid deaths.

But the point is not only that McConnell found something to laugh about in Covid deaths, although it was striking that chortling was the response he reached for. His laughter-as-answer to McGrath came off as something else, and a reaction that will be familiar to many women: Condescension and dismissiveness. You foolish girl ... You just don't understand how it works. (It's an illuminating bit of video, if you haven't yet watched.)

As for the actual metrics of chaos that McGrath laid at his feet — the unemployed Americans, the dead Americans — McConnell couldn't even pretend to care. The effect was one of arrogance — not to mention stunningly cold and even sexist.

"She mentions she was in the Marines about every other sentence," McConnell said, derisively. "I think her entire campaign is: she's a Marine, she's a mom, and I've been there (in Washington) too long." Translation: She's just a Marine and just a mom; she doesn't know what she's doing, which is why she's questioning what I've done.

The defense McConnell offered for his do-nothing party is that the other side won't negotiate — even though House Democrats did indeed pass a $2.2 trillion stimulus bill early this month, which McConnell has rejected. And McConnell can manage to rally his troops to, as McGrath put it, "ram through a Supreme Court nominee right now, instead of negotiating, which is what he should have been doing all summer long to make that happen."

Despite being a member of the party of personal responsibility, McConnell refuses to accept accountability for the Senate's dereliction of duty on additional Covid relief for Americans. Instead, he blames Pelosi, who gets the bulk of his ire, and he heaps condescension on another woman — his political opponent, McGrath — for having the temerity to even ask.

Kentucky is currently facing a backlog of some 75,000 unresolved unemployment claims — state residents who are out of a job but unable to collect much-needed benefits. Drug deaths, obesity rates and cancer rates are all stunningly high. About 1 in 4 children in Kentucky lives in poverty — and that was before Covid-19 wiped out tens of thousands of Kentucky jobs.

The state saw a remarkable drop in the percentage of uninsured residents, thanks to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), going from 66% uninsured in 2010 to a mere 5.5% uninsured by 2019.

But now, with his state, and the country, trapped in the teeth of a pandemic, McConnell has forced confirmation hearings for a conservative Supreme Court nominee who many believe would join in a decision to obliterate the ACA in a case set to come before the court in just a few weeks.

Now the question is: Will Kentucky voters agree that this is all a laughing matter?

Around the world in 11 days: Bar-tailed godwit breaks own record, flying from Alaska to New Zealand

A 12,000-kilometre non-stop round-the-world flight from Alaska to New Zealand would tire out even the most seasoned air traveller, without the help of a snack, a nap or some distracting entertainment. For the male bar-tailed godwit, on the other hand, it’s a piece of cake.

© Provided by National Post 

Scientists believe the bar-tailed godwit does not sleep on its long journeys, despite flapping its wings non-stop

Scientists say the bird has set a new world record for avian non-stop flight, after tracking its route over 11 days from southwest Alaska to a bay near Auckland, flying at speeds of up to 55 km/h.

“They are designed like a jet fighter. Long, pointed wings and a really sleek design which gives them a lot of aerodynamic potential,” Dr. Jesse Conklin told the Guardian of the bird’s feat. Conklin is a scientist with the Global Flyaway Network , a worldwide partnership between researchers who study epic migratory patterns.

Researchers at the Pūkorokoro Miranda Shorebird Centre, southeast of Auckland, had caught and tagged the bird and 20 others in late 2019. The bird, labelled as 4BBRW due to the blue, blue, red and then white rings on its legs, had been fitted with a satellite tag on its back. Scientists say the bird, along with four others, left from the Alaskan mudflats on Sept. 16, where they had feasted for two months on clams and worms.

The birds, according to the scientists, headed south over the Aleutian Islands and then onto the Pacific Ocean, passing over Hawaii and Fiji. Scientists believe strong easterly winds along the way prolonged the birds’ journey and pushed them towards Australia.

© Getty Images The bar-tailed godwit has broken its own world record for avian flight after flying 12,200 km from Alaska to New Zealand.

“They are flying over open ocean for days and days in the mid-Pacific; there is no land at all. Then they get to New Caledonia and Papua New Guinea where there are quite a few islands and, we might be anthropomorphising, but it really looks like they start spotting land and sort of think: ‘Oh, I need to start veering or I will miss New Zealand’,” Conklin told the Guardian.

The satellite recorded a point-to-point flight of 12,854 kilometres, but scientists have estimated that the distance travelled will have been around 12,200 kilometres once rounding errors are accounted for. The previous longest non-stop flight on record was by a bird that flew 11,680 kilometres. That effort was recorded in 2007, and it was also by a bar-tailed godwit (on that occasion female).

While the male bird, which weighs between 190 grams and 400 grams, can double in size before a long flight, scientists say it’s also able to shrink its internal organs to lessen the carried load.

Scientists believe, but have not yet proven, that the birds do not sleep on their journey, despite flapping their wings non-stop. “They have an incredibly efficient fuel-to-energy rate,” Conklin said.

“There are other birds that make similar-scale flights of say 10,000 (kilometres) but there are not a whole load of places in the world where it is necessary,” Conklin said. “So it is not necessarily that this is the only bird capable of it – but it is the only bird that needs to do it.”

The route along the Pacific functions as an ‘ecological corridor,’ scientists suggest, mostly because it is relatively free of disease and predators. However, climate change could soon render it an unsuitable route, as the frequencies and strengths of the winds along the passage change.

Dissidents of the Turkish government are living in fear in Canada

Mehmet Bastug, Lecturer, Criminology, Lakehead University and Davut Akca, Researcher, Forensic Behavioural Science and Justice Studies, University of Saskatchewan 1 day ago

Turkey’s long arm and espionage activities against dissidents living in exile in Canada has become a growing concern. As revealed in a startling recent news report, 15 Turkish-Canadians have been targeted by the Turkish government within the scope of a “terrorism” investigation.

© (Turkish Presidency via AP) Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan applauds during a conference in Istanbul in July 2020 as lawmakers made speeches before voting on a bill that would give the government greater powers to regulate social media.

Needless to say, the term “terrorist” has become a commonly applied label in Turkey describing almost all opponents of the Turkish government, in and out of the country. Turkey’s operations in Canada have an impact that goes beyond its immediate targets. Such planned and organized espionage activities could pose a danger to public safety.

In the last several years, the Turkish state engaged in a three-phase campaign abroad to silence its own citizens who are critical of the government:

Propaganda activities through Turkish state entities and pro-government civil society organizations to discredit opposition groups;

Intelligence-gathering and espionage activities;

Intimidation, threats and abduction.

Defaming dissidents

Turkish authorities have been organizing defamatory propaganda activities against the dissidents.

The Telegraph in the U.K., for example, recently reported that mosques and community centres with links to Turkey in Britain are used to disperse anti-Kurdish propaganda. Similarly, as posted on the Facebook page of the Turkish Canadian Religious Foundation, the religious affairs office of the Turkish Consulate General in Toronto organized a mosque visit and delivered booklets against opposition groups, apparently to demonize them in the eyes of other Islamic groups in greater Toronto area.

In the last several years, Turkey has been aggressively gathering intelligence about its citizens living in exile. It’s also been using certain organizations and communities as its eyes and ears to spy on dissidents.

An example of this is DITIB, a state-funded Turkish-Islamic union that runs more than 900 mosques in Germany. Imams of DITIB were accused by German authorities of gathering intelligence about regime critics on behalf of the Turkish government.

© (AP Photo/Martin Meissner) People walk along a street in front of the DITIB mosque in Cologne, Germany, in March 2020.

Such activities are being watched by authorities with concern and are believed to pose “a danger to the internal peace.”

Threats, disappearances, torture

Many opponents have been the victims of enforced disappearance. As reported by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, dissidents on Turkey have been forcibly disappeared and tortured by government agents. There are also cases where they were abducted abroad, particularly in countries ruled by corrupt and authoritarian regimes.

Haaretz reported that the current Turkish government snatched over 100 dissidents from other countries and brought them back to Turkey. The recent revelations from an imprisoned Turkish mob leader in Argentina on how some Turkish government officials had recruited him to kill American pastor Andrew Brunson demonstrated that mafia-type government operations aren’t rare.

Intimidation is another tactic used to spy on opponents. Turkish agents threatened regime critics to convince them to provide information about targeted groups and organizations abroad. Those whose immediate family members are still in Turkey are particularly targeted.

According to a recording obtained by Radio Sweden, the chairman of a lobby organization with ties to the Turkish state told a member of the Gulen movement — a group that has become a target of the government — that his wife, who was in Turkey at the time, would be arrested if he does not co-operate with Turkish authorities.
Fear of abduction

In a recent research project with two colleagues, we examined how the activities of Turkish authorities in Canada influenced the daily lives and social interactions of dissidents.

The research revealed their fear of the Turkish state. Our findings indicate they’ve made significant changes in their lives to protect themselves. These changes include moving to another neighbourhood or city, changing daily routines and avoiding being in certain places and attending group activities.

They are also subjected to hate speech by their fellow nationals who have emotional or material ties with Turkish government. As a result of their experiences, they prefer not to connect with other Turkish people because they fear they’ll be spied on, abducted or forcibly returned Turkey.

For some dissidents, the fear of being oppressed by the Turkish government persists even in Canada. However, many of them view Canada as a safe country where they can raise their voices through democratic channels. They also hope that Turkey will ultimately abandon its aggressive policies against opposing voices and respect human rights in the future.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

U.S. military says South Korean workers may be laid off amid row over costs

© Reuters/HANDOUT FILE PHOTO: American and South Korean flags at Yongin South Korea

SEOUL (Reuters) - The U.S. military will put nearly 9,000 South Korean workers on unpaid leave from April in the absence of an agreement on the sharing of costs of maintaining 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea, it has told the government.

The allies are at odds over how much of the cost South Korea should shoulder to accommodate U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Negotiations have made little progress even after the previous deal, the Special Measures Agreement (SMA), expired at the end of 2019.

The workers, who are mostly employed at U.S. bases, were put on unpaid leave in April, which led to a temporary agreement in June to let South Korea fund some 4,000 of them.

USFK, in a Oct. 5 letter to the labour ministry seen by Reuters, said temporary funding would expire on Dec. 31 and it could only pay the workers until March.

"We still face a labour funding deficit for the rest of calendar year 2021," the U.S. military said.

"Absent a signed SMA or related bilateral agreement, USFK may need to furlough ... Korean national employees starting no earlier than April 1."

President Donald Trump has said South Korea should pay more and the disagreement raised the prospect that he could push to withdraw at least some U.S. troops, as he has done elsewhere.

Cost-sharing talks were a major sticking point during an annual security meeting this week between Defence Minister Suh Wook and U.S. Secretary of Defence Mark Esper in Washington.

They said in a statement they had agreed to finalise a deal, citing "the impact of the lapse on the alliance", but failed, for the first time since 2008, to stipulate pledges to "maintain the current force level of USFK".

A South Korean military official said Esper had expressed concern the absence of a deal could "impact our joint readiness".

"But they also reaffirmed 'unshakable commitment' to the combined defence in the statement, that's what we focus on instead of the mere number of troops." said the official, who declined to be identified.

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Robert Birsel)

First Nations chief calls on Trudeau to help settle Nova Scotia lobster dispute

DIGBY, N.S. — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau needs to do more than send tweets to settle an increasingly violent dispute over an Indigenous-led lobster fishery in Nova Scotia, a First Nations chief said Thursday.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

"Actions speak louder than words," Chief Mike Sack of the Sipekne'katik First Nation told a news conference Thursday in Digby, N.S., located about 40 kilometres from where a lobster pound was damaged by protesters.

"They're sitting in their offices, safe as can be, saying, 'We need safety out there.' Then send enforcement down," Sack said. "Do your job. Protect Canadians . . . . Don't just tweet about it."

The RCMP have said about 200 people were present at two violent clashes Tuesday outside lobster pounds in New Edinburgh and Middle West Pubnico.

Describing the events as a hate crime, Sack asked Trudeau to send additional law enforcement personnel to the area to ensure the violence is contained.

"This truly is systemic racism," Sack said when asked about the RCMP's actions. "Does Trudeau care about our people? Does he care about reconciliation? They talk about it, but I don't see any actions towards it . . . . The RCMP dropped the ball."

The chief said his council has decided to take legal action against those who are interfering with the band's self-regulated lobster fishery. "We'll go after everyone," he said, adding that his First Nation is considering calling in Indigenous warriors from across the country.

The non-Indigenous protesters say they are opposed to the band's decision to start a commercial lobster fishing business that has operated outside the federally regulated lobster season since mid-September.

Sack argues Indigenous people in Atlantic Canada and Quebec have a treaty right to fish for a moderate livelihood where and when they want, based on a 1999 Supreme Court of Canada decision that cites treaties signed by the Crown in the 1700s.

Many non-Indigenous critics, however, cite a clarification issued four months after the 1999 ruling, stating the Mi'kmaq treaty rights would be subject to federal regulations to ensure conservation of the resource.

Colin Sproul, head of the The Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen's Association, said in an interview he condemns the violent acts but added that they are the product of years of growing concern about the state of the stocks.

Video: Miller says 'space needs to be given for negotiations' among Indigenous communities after violent, tense Nova Scotia fishery incidents (Global News) https://tinyurl.com/yxkhml7h

"We're Canadians. We should expect that dialogue is always the way to solve our problems, not through violence," he said.

He also criticized the Mounties for failing to take action against any of the parties to the dispute. He said he was dumbfounded a few weeks ago when he saw Indigenous fishers trying to board a non-Indigenous boat in St. Marys Bay while an RCMP tactical squad observed.

"I can accept that Indigenous people may have seen acts of violence perpetrated against them that the RCMP walked away from, too," he said.

The RCMP confirmed Thursday they had increased the number of officers in the area following the violent incidents on Tuesday night. "What we’re hoping for is a peaceful resolution to this very important issue," RCMP Sgt. Andrew Joyce said in an interview.

In Ottawa, Minister of Indigenous Services Marc Miller said he found the images of Tuesday night's violence alarming.

"We're talking about a fundamental right to earn a moderate livelihood, that is a right the Mi'kmaq are entitled to exercise," Miller said. He noted that "moderate livelihood" has never been defined in a way that's acceptable to all sides and said non-Indigenous fishers need be involved in the discussion.

"The risk, if we don't get this right, is that people will die . . . . Violence begets violence, and that is unacceptable," he said.

Following a cabinet meeting Thursday, Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil said he was "extremely disappointed" by the federal response to date around the Indigenous lobster fishery. McNeil said Ottawa needs to find a workable solution by sitting down with all sides in the dispute as soon as possible.

"This is only getting more entrenched . . . they need to be in the same room so everyone knows what each other is saying," he said.

McNeil also said the province would provide police with the "resources necessary," including manpower to ensure public safety in the area. "If more people are required, we obviously would have to pick up that bill," he said.

Provincial Justice Minister Mark Furey said he was satisfied with the RCMP response, adding that he thought it's been a "measured approach" under difficult circumstances.

Sack said during the news conference the Mi'kmaq fishery will continue despite the damage done to the holding facilities, the burning of one fisherman's boat and damage to vehicles in recent weeks.

He said the band is now in the process of purchasing the damaged plant in New Edinburgh, which he said would include a buyer's licence if the sale is completed. "It's just a matter of doing the paperwork," he said.

— With files from Danielle Edwards, Keith Doucette and Michael MacDonald in Halifax.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 15, 2020.

Michael Tutton, The Canadian Press

Trump administration rejects California fires disaster declaration


The Trump administration has rejected a disaster declaration request over rampant wildfires that scorched California last month. A spokesperson for the Governor's Office of Emergency Services (CA OES) confirmed the development to CBS News.

© Bloomberg More California Fires Erupt As Dry Winds Make State A Tinderbox

"Confirming that the request for a Major Presidential Disaster Declaration for early September fires has been denied by the federal administration," Brian Ferguson said. "The state plans to appeal the decision and believes we have a strong case that California's request meets the federal requirements for approval. Meantime, Cal OES continues to aggressively pursue other available avenues for reimbursement/support to help individuals and communities impacted by these fires rebuild and recover."

The disaster declaration request was issued September 28. In it, Federal Emergency Management Agency Regional Administrator Robert J. Fenton Jr asked that the White House declare "a major disaster in Fresno, Los Angeles, Madera, Mendocino, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Siskiyou counties."

"The severity and magnitude of these fires continue to cause significant impacts to the state and to the affected, local jurisdictions, such that recovery efforts remain beyond the state's capabilities," the request reads in part.

The Creek Fire in Fresno and Madera counties is one of the largest in state history, having burned more than 340,000 acres, while the Bobcat Fire in Los Angeles County has consumed more than 115,000 acres. Other fires mentioned in the request include the El Dorado Fire in San Bernardino County, which has burned more than 22,000 acres; the Valley Fire in San Diego County, which has burned more than 16,000 acres; the Oak Fire in Mendocino County, and the Slater Fire in Siskiyou County, which has burned more than 156,000 acres.

It's unclear why the Trump administration denied the disaster declaration request. In the past, the president has been critical of California's response to wildfires and has blamed the recent increase in incidents on poor forest management, even though many forests in California are federally managed.

Trump acknowledges he may owe $400 million to unknown sources during town hall

U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledged that he may owe $400 million to unknown sources during a town hall television event on Thursday.

© AP Photo/Evan Vucci President Donald Trump listens during an NBC News Town Hall, at Perez Art Museum Miami, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2020, in Miami.

The amount was originally revealed after a New York Times investigation that also claims Trump paid around $750 in taxes in the 2016 and 2017 tax years and no taxes for 10 of the last 15 years.

Read more: ‘I don’t want to pay taxes,’ Trump says while disputing NYT report in debate with Biden

“When you look at the amount of money, $400 million is a peanut, it is extremely underlevered (sic)," Trump told NBC host Savannah Guthrie. "It is levered with normal banks, not a big deal."

While Trump said "levered," he most likely meant leveraged, which means money was borrowed to invest in an expected profitable venture.

Trump said that he doesn't owe the money to Russia or any "sinister people." When asked if he owes it to any foreign bank or entity, he replied, "Not that I know of."

When asked directly whether he has over $400 million in debt, as the Times claims, Trump responded, "It is a tiny percentage of my net worth."

Video: Who do you owe money to? (cbc.ca) https://tinyurl.com/yxbujav3

"That sounds like yes (you are confirming,)" Guthrie replied.

There is concern that Trump's debt could be a national security risk to the U.S. as it could be used to influence the president's decision-making.

Read more: Trump’s reported debts raise national security issues for possible 2nd term: experts

“Why would banks assume the risk on these loans?” Richard Painter, who served as chief ethics attorney in Republican George W. Bush’s White House Painter, said when the news first broke.

“Or did someone else quietly assume risk of that loan for the bank to make it happen?”

Trump previously has said he has "very little debt" and has highlighted the amount of debt compared to his alleged net worth.

When asked whether he paid $750 in tax for the 2016 and 2017 tax years on Thursday, Trump said it is a "statutory number" and he thinks it is a "filing number" and claimed the New York Times' numbers were wrong.

-With files from the Associated Press

After pandemic delays, RCMP union's quest for salary bump resumes

After a series of pandemic-related delays, the head of the union representing Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers says salary negotiations are back in full swing — a process that could see policing costs swell across much of the country.

The original plan was to kick off bargaining talks in March, but the pandemic delayed many face-to-face meetings for the new union which, after a years-long fight, received certification back in 2019.

"I think our membership has shown their patience with respect to this process and I'd ask them and the public to obviously realize that this is a marathon, not a sprint, and we're building from zero. So it will take some time," National Police Federation president Brian Sauvé said in an interview with CBC News.

"As far as I'm concerned, they started in a very meaningful and fruitful way."

Sauvé said that, unless future meetings are hampered by a second wave of COVID cases, he hopes to present a deal to rank-and-file members to begin voting on next summer. RCMP members have never before had a union contract.

"So we're cautiously optimistic that everything is going to continue on that path and we'll be able to accomplish a lot in the next six to eight months," he said.

The RCMP employs more than 20,000 police officers. Giving them any kind of pay boost could put new pressure on budgets for multiple levels of government.

Citing the ongoing negotiations, Sauvé won't say publicly how much of a pay hike his union is seeking. He said the goal is to bring Mounties in line with other police agencies.

According to RCMP wage figures last updated in 2016, a constable makes between $53,000 and $86,110, while a staff sergeant can make between $109,000 and just over $112,000.

A constable for the Edmonton Police Service, meanwhile, makes a salary of between $69,107 and $112,427, according to the EPS website.

"They've been obviously without a raise for going on four years now, four and a bit," said Sauvé of his members. "We want to be fairly compensated."

© CBC Brian Sauvé is president of the National Police Federation.

A spokesperson for the Treasury Board said the federal government "is committed to reaching an agreement with the National Police Federation that is fair for RCMP regular members and reservists, as well as reasonable for Canadians."

"Out of respect for the collective bargaining process, we will not comment further on negotiations," said Bianca Healy in an email.
Contract policing under review

While the RCMP is overseen at the federal level, Mounties serve as police in most provinces and in all three territories through contract agreements. They also serve in more than 100 communities outside of cities.

The provinces and territories pay the lion's share of RCMP policing contracts — about 70 per cent — while the federal government covers the rest. Municipal RCMP contracts are based on a number of different cost-sharing scenarios that vary according to a community's size and the date it first signed a policing agreement with the RCMP.

Those contract policing obligations have been cited as a costly drain on the RCMP's resources, diverting them from federal duties such as investigating organized crime and protecting national security.

"Public Safety Canada and the RCMP have confirmed there are systemic sustainability challenges impacting the whole of the RCMP," said a memo drafted by Public Safety and obtained by the Canadian Press.

The salary talks come at a moment of national and international reckoning over police budgets and use of force, driven by in-custody deaths in the United States and investigations of Canadian police services' use-of-force policies.

Sauvé said those conversations haven't made their way into the salary negotiations yet.

"From our perspective, whether it's defund-the-police or [reallocating] resources, I think those are more political discussions about how we allocate resources, how we decide how many police officers are in a community. It really goes to the budgeting and recruiting efforts and the resource methodology that the RCMP uses," he said.

"We're advancing those arguments in different forums, like the federal budget committee, different provincial budget committees, the public safety minister's office and such. So it hasn't come up in contract negotiations."

Rights group threatens lawsuit to force New Brunswick to make abortion accessible


FREDERICTON — A civil rights group is threatening New Brunswick's government with a lawsuit to force the province to repeal its abortion-related legislation and to make the procedure more widely available.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

New Brunswick denies women, girls, and trans people fair access to abortions, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association said in an Oct. 14 letter to Premier Blaine Higgs and Health Minister Dorothy Shephard.

If the government doesn't repeal its "discriminatory laws" on abortion and give wider access to the procedure, "we are prepared to commence legal proceedings," the letter reads.

Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, a director with the group, said New Brunswick is violating citizens' rights under the Charter.

"It's a fundamental rights issue and it's a matter of constitutionality and the province has not been willing to budge for a long time," she said in an interview Wednesday.

The association is targeting regulation 84-20 under New Brunswick's Medical Services Payment Act. That rule states the province will not subsidize the cost of an abortion conducted outside a "hospital facility approved by the jurisdiction in which the hospital facility is located."

Mendelsohn Aviv said that since there are only three hospitals in the province that provide abortion services -- two in Moncton and one in Bathurst -- most New Brunswickers don't have proper access to the procedure. Many, she added, don't have the means to travel to access the service.

Mendelsohn Aviv said she's confident that if the matter goes to court, her organization would win and force the province to repeal that law. The letter is just the beginning of the process, she added.

"This is step one and with any luck it will be sufficient," she said. "The cost to the government of fighting a lawsuit that they will lose is far greater than any cost to providing safe and accessible abortion care in the province."

A provincial government spokesperson refused to comment on the letter Thursday. "We do not comment on potential legal matters," Coreen Enos said in an email.

The only facility where New Brunswick residents can obtain an abortion outside a hospital is Clinic 554 in Fredericton. But its medical director, Dr. Adrian Edgar, has said the centre is facing closure because it's not financially sustainable.

Mendelsohn Aviv said the province has been called out before for its strict abortion regulations. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reminded Higgs last year the province has an obligation to fund out-of-hospital abortions or risk penalties.

Federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu echoed Trudeau's concerns earlier this year.

“Women are not covered in specific regions of that particular province, so I have spoken with my counterpart ... and we’ll continue those conversations," Hajdu said.

"We expect the province to come into compliance and ensure there is equity in access, in particular around abortion."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 15, 2020.

- - -

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

Danielle Edwards, The Canadian Press

Rights group decries Myanmar's camps for displaced Rohingya
By GRANT PECK, Associated Press 2020-10-08


BANGKOK (AP) — The de facto detention of 130,000 ethnic Rohingya in squalid camps in Myanmar amounts to a form of apartheid, a human rights group alleged Thursday in urging the world to pressure Aung San Suu Kyi’s government to free them.

The camps are a legacy of long discrimination against the Muslim Rohingya minority in Buddhist-dominated Myanmar and were the immediate consequence of communal violence that began in 2012 between the Rohingya and the Buddhist Rakhine ethnic group. The fighting left people in both groups homeless, but almost all of the Rakhine have since returned to their homes or been resettled, while the Rohingya have not.© Provided by Associated Press FILE - In this June 24, 2014, file photo, a Rohingya boy walks with a mat as children play in the background at Dar Paing camp for Muslim refugees in north of Sittwe, western Rakhine State, Myanmar. The de facto detention of 130,000 ethnic Rohingya in squalid camps in Myanmar amounts to a form of apartheid, a human rights group alleged Thursday, Oct. 8, 2020 in urging the world to pressure Aung San Suu Kyi’s government to free them. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe, File)

Human Rights Watch in its new report said inhuman conditions in 24 tightly restricted camps and closed-off communities in the western state of Rakhine threaten the right to life and other basic rights of the Rohingya.

“Severe limitations on livelihoods, movement, education, health care, and adequate food and shelter have been compounded by widening constraints on humanitarian aid, which Rohingya depend on for survival,” the report said. “Camp detainees face higher rates of malnutrition, waterborne illnesses, and child and maternal mortality than their ethnic Rakhine neighbors.”

“The government’s claims that it’s not committing the gravest international crimes will ring hollow until it cuts the barbed wire and allows Rohingya to return to their homes, with full legal protections,” said Shayna Bauchner, Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch and author of the report.

Myanmar’s government had no immediate response to the report. Rohingya are not recognized as an official minority in Myanmar, where they face widespread discrimination and most are denied citizenship and other basic rights. Many members of other ethnic groups consider the Rohingya to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

People living in the camps cannot move freely because of formal policies, ad hoc practices, checkpoints, barbed-wire fencing and a widespread system of extortion that makes travel prohibitive, Human Rights Watch said.


As we mark the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, take a look at the top 10 countries which generated the largest number of refugees and the top 10 countries where they have sought shelter, according to United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Mid-Year Trends 2016 data.

(Pictured) Refugees after being rescued in the Mediterranean Sea, near Libya.

The report also noted a lack of education and employment opportunities was inflicting systemic damage. “This deprivation of education is a violation of the fundamental rights of the 65,000 children living in the camps. It serves as a tool of long-term marginalization and segregation of the Rohingya, cutting off younger generations from a future of self-reliance and dignity, as well as the ability to reintegrate into the broader community,” it said.

Myanmar's government in April 2017 announced plans to begin closing the camps, but Human Right Watch said those plans entailed building permanent structures in their place, ”further entrenching segregation and denying the Rohingya the right to return to their land, reconstruct their homes, regain work, and reintegrate into Myanmar society, in violation of their fundamental rights.”

Later that year, Myanmar security forces waged a brutal counterinsurgency campaign that targeted Rohingya. The army-directed violence including the burning of villages, rape and murder and drove an estimated 740,000 Rohingya to seek refuge in neighboring Bangladesh. International courts are seeking to determine whether genocide was committed.

Related slideshow: Refugees around the globe (Provided by Photo Services)

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